The Respawn
by Rechartz
Summary: She never saw the accident coming, and when the impact came she was dead within seconds. But when you wake up after dying, in a room with faces a little too familiar for your taste, there is not much you can do but learn how to cope with it.
1. Prologue

The lights were blurry colors outside the bus window, messily flying past the sitting travelers. The bus was half empty, passengers scattered over the length of it.

A young girl was curled comfortably into a half sitting, half lying position on the seats in the front row of the bus, concentrating on the phone in her hands. Fingers rapidly tapping in words before pressing send, the message popping up on the screen with the little box 'read' under it.

In a few seconds another box popped from the person she was talking with, and the girl grinned. Quickly typing in another reply, she glanced outside at the passing lights, locking the phone with a tap on a button and resting it in her lap.

She watched the hypnotic lights, the dull dark colors of the sky and the shining snow on the fields.

The driver fiddled with the radio, and in a moment the bus was filled with silent music. It was peaceful.

The girl yawned sleepily, jerking when the phone in her hand vibrated and the screen unlocked itself, a message box revealing the text. Quickly reading it, her face broke into a huge grin and she quickly typed in her reply while chuckling quietly.

'_You wish'_

She pressed send and locked the phone once again, shaking her head and grinning. A strong light on the side of the road caught her attention, and she turned her head towards it, brain barely comprehending what it was before it was too late.

The impact of the speeding truck slammed into the bus right behind her seat, crushing the side and breaking the glass. Her bags fell down from her seat, phone flying through the air, screen cracking and breaking when it hit the window.

By the time she understood what was happening; her lifeless body had hit the floor.

'_What if life had a respawn system?!'_

RzRzRzRz

Muffled curses among the tunes of a soft song were the only things that could be heard in the middle of the dark night. Light was seeping through the cracks under the closed workshop door. Inside, a man was bent over bits and pieces of something resembling a broken down gun.

A yellow safety helmet was carelessly thrown somewhere behind the man, and a pair of goggles rested on his forehead.

A mechanic arm was fiddling around with small pieces that seemed impossible to handle with human hands. A few more minutes passed like this, the man muttering to himself while trying to fit the pieces together. Finally, he gave up and threw the useless bits aside, leaning back in his chair and massaging his temple, the goggles falling down under his chin.

The man sighed tiredly, pushing away some of the unusable metal down on the floor with a single stroke of his arm. He stared a few seconds at the mess on the floor, before cursing loudly and getting up, retrieving a large box with the label 'Metal'. Picking up the biggest pieces and throwing them into the already half full box, the man retrieved his hard hat and a yellow glove, pulling it on his robotic arm.

Carelessly throwing the box back in its place, only briefly glancing that it didn't topple over, he continued to the workshop door, pushing down the doorknob before a sudden noise stopped him. He turned around, searching with his gaze for the source of the sudden noise.

His gaze stopped on one of the big security screens, displaying one of the all too familiar rooms of Teufort.

A figure was lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious. Frowning, the man walked closer, but the screen was too blurry to see who it was. The body was easily small enough to be the scout. He glanced at the clock but at this hour, even the late night birds like him got too tired to stay up.

The man rubbed his eyes, and shut the screen off before finally exiting the room, walking towards the respawn room.

RzRzRzRz

She was standing in darkness, except her own body seemed to be emitting some sort of a glow. It was weird. Shouldn't she be dead? She could clearly remember the truck hitting her, the blinding pain and then the darkness.

She glanced down at her arms and her body, and the big cuts, the blood, the broken bones. Seconds ticked by, until she noticed the small changes. She watched how the skin painlessly knitted together, how her arm straightened, and how the blood dripped off her body like water off a duck.

It was like being in a dream. The way her body healed shouldn't have made any sense at all, but somehow it did. It was like it was completely normal for the broken bones in her body to straighten out and return to normal.

She stretched out her arms, watching the skin returning normal until there was nothing left to indicate that there had ever been an accident.

Then suddenly her body exploded into pain. Everything hurt, an unimaginable pain she had never feel before, and she gasped like she was choking. Seconds went by, and the pain increased, until it was suddenly all gone, and she fell down on a cold white floor. Her vision was blurry, her head was a mess but otherwise there was no more pain. Like it had never been there at all. Breathing heavily on the cold floor, bright lights stinging in her eyes, she tried to move, but noticed that she couldn't move a muscle.

She didn't know how long she was lying there. All she knew, that while time went by, she became more and more tired, until she was barely awake.

Somewhere, a door opened, but her vision was swimming and she wasn't able to figure out if it was a door far away, or close. A voice, calling out, and the girl tried to turn her head towards the sound, but the pounding in her skull became too much, and she blacked out.

"**MEDIC!"**


	2. 2 - Familiar faces

**A/N: … I'm sorry guys this took forever**

**But yeah ok, here you go. It takes a very long time for me to write fiction, as I don't have a deadline and I just leave it to kinda rot. But I know how to continue this and I have a goal, which means I will do this! Slowly but surely!**

**Before I let you continue I want you just to know that the main character here is ****NOT**** American. She is not English at all, and she will at times talk her own mother tongue, but don't get confused about that.**

**vVvVv **

When she finally found the strength to open her eyes, someone was carrying with rushed steps. There were voices all around her, panicked and loud. Her head throbbed and her vision was too blurry, all the colours floating together in a brightly lit mess.

She tried moving, her hands twitching helplessly before they finally reacted sluggishly and swung to the side, knocking into something. She stared numbly at the spots in her vision, blinking a few times trying to clear it.

Suddenly she stopped, or the one carrying her stopped. At least the bouncing had ceased. Somewhere, sounding far away among the high pitched beeping in her head, someone was speaking with a calm voice. It was one of those voices she heard on movies, deep and smooth, perfect to listen to. The only problem was she couldn't figure out what the voice was saying, much to her discomfort. She opened her mouth to tell the nice voice this, but only a rush of breath came out.

Annoyed, she shut her mouth. After a few fleeting seconds she lifted her arms away from where they were nestled close to her chest, and pressed them over her burning eyes. Keeping them open wasn't helping her sight at all.

The voice had stopped, but she couldn't bring herself to really care. Slowly, she took a breath, calming down her breathing. Slowly she started to fall back into the comforting touch of sleep.

RzRzRzRz

He charged into the medical bay, the spy long gone to alert the rest of the base and the scout uselessly hanging of his shoulder babbling in a high voice. The girl in his arms was once again unmoving and seemingly dead to the world.

"Doc!" he shouted and as carefully as possible dropped the girl on one of the beds before charging to the doctor's room. He knocked loudly two times before pushing down the door handle and opening the door, barging in and revealing a dark room. In the back of it he could see the shape of the team doctor sitting up in his bed, hair ruffled and a pissed scowl on his face. In other situations he would've waited until morning to disturb the easily-pissed off doctor, but well. This wasn't just any situation.

The doctor cursed him, his scowl only slightly lessening when he noted the engineer's distressed face. Getting up he followed the team hardhat to his medical bay. When his eyes noted the unmoving girl on the bed, he stiffened, eyes widening as they swept over the unfamiliar figure. He glanced at the other man, mouth slightly open in surprise.

"Who is this?" he asked, but the only answer he got was a weak shrug. He moved towards the bed, standing beside the girl. Carefully he moved the girl's limbs to a more comfortable position. She seemed to be sleeping, chest moving slightly with every breath.

"How did she get here?" the doctor asked, hands moving over the girl's body, checking for any injuries. Frowning he noted how there was nothing there at all. Was she really only sleeping?

"I found her in the respawn." the man said softly, taking a seat in a chair opposite of the doctor, leaning forward as he watched the doctor work his magic. At his words the doctor's head snapped up, staring at the other man in horror.

"Could she be from some other team?" the medic asked, pausing in his work.

"No, I doubt it. She seems too young and her clothes are… different." The hardhat answered.

He ran a hand over the girls black hoodie. It wasn't anything that could be found in the shop for any class. The other man ran a hand over his bald head, resting his elbows on his knees. He jumped when the doctor brought his hands together over the girls face in a loud clap, raising an eyebrow when the girls face scrunched up in a grimace, head moving away from the loud noise.

The medic muttered something to himself, briefly glancing up at the engineer before continuing. He moved his hands, gripping the girl's zipper and unzipped her hoodie, ignoring the engineers wondering face. He removed the clothing, placing it on a chair nearby before reaching towards the blanket that was neatly folded on the very end of the bed. With it he tucked the girl in, making sure she was comfortably covered before gesturing to the engineer to follow him as he walked out of the room.

"I suspect she is simply asleep. She has no injuries, and she reacts to loud noises." The doctor said, almost chattily, as they made their way down to the so-called 'living room'. It was dark outside, as it was past midnight but the longue was lit and several of the team members were seated there already. The pyro sat closest, fiddling with a lighter but not lighting it. The scout was slouching on the same sofa, and the Scottish drunkard on the opposite, fiddling with an unopened beer bottle. When the duo arrived to the room, it was silent except for the rustling of clothes as their team-mates turned towards them.

After a long moment of nothing, the silence was broken by the spy who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere again.

"How is she?" he asked quietly, the smooth French accent only barely there. The other turned their heads toward the medic, same question evident in their eyes too. The doctor shrugged, repeating his earlier words.

"She is sleeping." he said, speaking to all of them. The room fell into silence again, nobody knew what to say or do. It was a first time, and a mystery that too. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

"I took a look at the security footage from the respawn" the spy said, speaking up again. Everyone's heads turned towards him, waiting for him to continue. The spy sighed. "Nothing, she seems to have naturally spawned through the respawn, just like anyone of us." He ran a hand through his dark hair, rubbing it when he reached the back of it. "There is no evidence of it on the log thought" he said, turning his head towards the engineer with a grim expression.

The engineer chuckled grimly. "That's impossible. Every respawn is recorded onto the record, there is no way it wouldn't have noted her if she went through it." but his voice turned uncertain when the spy shook his head. He frowned, brain immediately trying to start solving the problem.

"What if it malfunctioned?" The earlier silent Scottish demo asked, for once sober. The engineer only barked out a sharp laugh, like it was something unheard off.

"If it was capable of malfunctioning like that we wouldn't be here." he said tiredly, grimly. "The only way it could malfunction would be when it's in constant use, overheating or worse. This was in the middle of the night." The silent, 'no one was using it' remained unsaid. He sighed and rubbed his temple.

The silence returned, heavier than before. They sat there, unmoving, unsure of what to do. Finally the engineer spoke up again.

"Shouldn't someone be watching her? In case she wakes up?" he turned his heard towards the doctor, who nodded, hesitating only slightly before turning and walking back the same way they came. In the corner of his eye the engineer noted the spy vanishing from sight, probably to follow the medic. With a heavy sigh the engineer sat down beside the demo, stealing the untouched beer in the man's hand.

"Do you have any idea wher' she from?" the scout asked, fiddling with his shirt. The engineer only shook his head and sipped the beer.

"No clue, but she has to have something to do with something concerning us. Maybe she is an employer of the administrator?" It was not impossible. The pyro huffed out something, voice muffled by the gasmask, however no one paid the firebug any attention.

"We should make sure she doesn't cause any trouble here at least" the engineer mumbled, though he was very sure such a skinny girl wouldn't be any threat to any of the team members. The Scott chuckled, obviously thinking the same thing.

"We could try contacting Miss Pauling" the scout said dreamily. The engineer hummed in agreement.

"In the morning." They agreed.

RzRzRzRz

It was like waking up after a long sleep. The first time her mind started waking, she didn't pay it any attention, only shifted on the matters to a more comfortable position before falling asleep again.

The second time was the same, but the third time she cracked one eye open, gaze searching for the familiar red numbers of her alarm clock whilst burrowing deeper into the warm comfy blankets. When she didn't find them, or when she didn't find anything that resembled her room she slowly sat up in her bed.

"Vad… **(1.)**" she mumbled with a yawn, rubbing away the sleep from her eyes and let her gaze wander around in the room.

A man was sitting on a chair beside her, seemingly sleeping. He was clothed in a blue dress shirt with rolled up sleeves, and had very neat looking darkish grey hair. She frowned, wondering where she had seen him before.

Ignoring the sleeping stranger for now, her gaze continued along the strangely sterile white room. It was obviously some kind of hospital room, with several beds and charts of the human body along the walls.

Then it hit her. She was alive. With a sharp intake of breath she ran her hands slowly over her arms, recalling the strange dream-like experience she had. She could recall every moment of the crash, but how could she be alive?

Her body had been literally crushed, and even so she felt fine. She felt better than fine, in fact her whole body was warm and cosy, as if the crash had only been a dream. But that didn't explain why she was in the hospital. Glancing at the sleeping man, she took a deep breath and tried to wake him.

"Ursäkta mig? **(2.)**" she asked, voice small and careful, almost shy. The man didn't react, so she coughed to clear her voice. "Hej, vakna! **(3.)**" she tried again, louder, and shook the man slightly by his shoulders. The man jerked and blinked rapidly, wheezing out a breath before focusing his gaze on the girl. His mouth fell open, doing the famous fish expression before collecting himself. She blinked at him, frowning slightly at his odd reaction. The man closed his mouth and swallowed before trying to speak.

"Are you all right Miss?" a voice behind her asked, with only the faintest traces of an accent. Her head whipped around, slightly startled at the second persons presence. When she finally found him, standing in a dimly lit doorway to another room she could barely believe her eyes.

It was a figure she could recognize anywhere, as she had seen him a thousand times. Her voice caught in her throat, as she sat there and stared. "Miss?" the man asked again, but she only closed her mouth and bit her teeth together. She looked like she had seen a ghost.

Seconds later there was a knock on the door, and it swung open revealing two other men, or one man with a yellow hardhat and red overalls, and another whose face was covered by a gasmask. Both too familiar objects. The two of them stopped in their tracks when they noticed her sitting up on the bed, an expression on her face that was slowly turning into a scowl.

The two newcomers smiled, or she assumed they did (the gasmask was completely covering the other persons expressions), and it was obvious that one of them were going to say something before getting cut off by the first man.

"Are you sure you are alright?" he asked, his voice just a shade weary. Her gaze narrowed again, before speaking up, ignoring the question.

"Are you guys' cosplayers?" She suddenly asked, completely serious. If these men were trying to pull a joke on her, she wanted to know, however the men in the room simply frowned.

"Are we what now, missy?" hardhat asked, glancing at the doctor who just shrugged.

"Cosplayers." She said again, scooting to the top of the bed as if trying to put distance between her and the all too familiar men. The man who had been sitting beside her all this time, silent and studying, cleared his throat and raised a hand.

"I do believe she is talking about a hobby in which a person wears clothes or accessories to represent a specific character." He said casually. The doctor's eyes widened.

"Why would we be…'cosplaying' anyone?" he asked, obviously confused. The girl opened her mouth, a slightly shocked expression on her face as she pointed towards the doctor.

"You honestly think I'm going to believe you're the medic from TF2?" she asked in disbelief, before bursting out laughing. "You can't be serious!" she continued giggling, because the whole situation was just getting weirder and weirder now. The classes from a video game, standing there and talking to her while she was in the hospital? Dear lord, if she had survived, against all odds, then there was no doubt that her brain had taken a massive shaking and she had lost her mind.

When she finally stopped laughing and noted how the room was awkwardly silent, how everyone was staring at her like she was the odd one here.

"You are serious." she stated, frowning. The man beside the bed nodded, leaning back into his chair. The two who had been standing near the doorway started finally walking in, still looking a bit unsure of the whole situation.

"May I ask for your name?" the man beside her bed asked. She hesitated, starting to suspect that she wasn't in a hospital after all. After all, why would people like this be allowed in one?

"It's… my name is Sara. Where am I?" she asked, fiddling with her blanket. The man beside the bed smiled gently, obviously trying to put her at ease. Too bad it only made her feel more nervous.

"I'm Antonio. You're currently in Teufort." He stopped there, unsure if he should give her any more specific information. The girls eyes widened slightly, but the man took no note of that. "May I ask how you ended up here?" he asked, and turned his body slightly so he could reach the black hoodie that had been resting on the back of the chair and offered it to its owner. She eyed it before reaching out and snatching back, pulling it on and zipping it up. She gave a mental sigh when the familiar feeling of the hoodie welcomed her.

"I don't know." Sara murmured and toyed with the zipper. She made a little 'mmh' sound, thinking about how she should put this next part. "I was on my way home from school, and the bus… it got hit by a truck. I have honsetly no idea how I ended up here, especially since this is not a hospital as far as I know." The silence confirmed her words about the hospital at least, and she started pulling on the zipper, up and down, up and down, repeat. "I was so sure I died." She said quietly, the words not really meant for anyone in the room. No one said anything, only stared at her with wide eyes.

"'Scuse me" the man with the hardhat suddenly exclaimed. "You mean you don't work for the Administrator?"

The girl couldn't help but chuckle, as she was pretty sure she was hallucinating. Badly. "You mean the bad tempered woman who shouts at you during the fights?" she smiled, and shook her head. "I've never met her." Slowly her face sobered and she moved so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed, instead of on it. "Are you telling me that right now, I'm sitting and talking with the mercenaries from Blu? Really?"

The men glanced at each other, obviously unsure. "Well, yes?" The hardhat said in an odd tone. "Why is that so weird?" No one asked how she knew about them, but the suspicion was clear in their faces.

The girl grimaced and shrugged, head starting to throb like she was solving a very hard math problem. "Yeah well… You guys are kind of characters in a video game? You can't be real." she asked and pulled her shoulders up to her ears. _I truly must be hallucinating_, she thought. The men burst out laughing, except for the pyromaniac and Antonio.

"Are you serious?" the doctor asked, his accent more obvious now than earlier. He cackled until Sara could hear how he was straining to breathe. But as he noted the girls insulted face, his laughter trailed off and he stared at the girl. It was almost as if the earlier situation was when she asked if they were cosplayers was repeated. "Why would you claim that we are… characters from a game? We are as real as we've ever been!" the doctor exclaimed, but he had an obvious worried look on his face. Sara winced and shifted on the bed.

"Well, where I come from there is a game called Team Fortress 2 and well… it's basically a first person shooter where you can choose from nine classes which you want to play and. Well, you guys are the characters." She waved at the men standing in the room, and cringed at her own bluntness. The hardhat whistled, placing a hand on the firebugs shoulder "You're as mad as pyro here!" he said, and the pyro stood like he was proud of it.

Sara stared at the pyromaniac, watching as he reached into his pocket and brought out a familiar zippo lighter. He flicked it, a small flame appearing and he stared into it like he always did. Exactly like the game pyro.

As silently as possible she took a shaky breath through her nose and exhaled through her mouth, lifting her legs so she could hug them. She didn't answer as a tightness settled in her throat, making it hard to swallow.

Her breath caught when someone, presumably the doctor, placed a hand on her back, making small movements as if to calm her down. She glanced up at him, noting the grim expression on his face.

"Go." He said shortly, shooing the hardhat and pyromaniac out of the room. They both hesitated, glancing at the still sitting Antonio and the doctor, who was starting to look angrier by every passing second they still stood there.

"Fine." Hardhat muttered, pushing the pyro slightly to get him to follow. Before they disappeared out the door, the firebug turned around and waved his gloved hand to the girl, who hesitantly lifted her own hand and waved back. They waited until the doors had swung closed, and the tapping of feet against the floor had disappeared.

The doctor sighed and removed his hand from the girls back and walked in front of her, pulling the closest chair towards the bed and taking a seat. She swallowed, the situation looking slightly too much like an interrogation scene from a movie. The doctor was glaring at her, while Antonio (maybe he wasn't one of the crazy guys, since he didn't resemble any of the classes) was leaning his head on his hand, looking like a model for someone painting a portrait.

"O-kay?" she mumbled, the thickness in her throat slowly vanishing. The pair stayed silent however, and her feet started tapping against the mattress. "Are you trying to make me uncomfortable?" she asked silently and ducked her head, half of it hiding behind her knees. A few more seconds passed, before Antonio's face broke into a grin.

"Just teasing." He smiled, winking at her. The doctor rolled his eyes at the man, scowling at him. "Be a darling and tell us everything, would you?"

**VvVv**

**1. What…**

**2. Excuse me?**

**3. Hey, wake up!**

**Kudos to you if you know what language this is.**

**Wanted to get this done before Easter, because I've been doing shit for the last few months (I'm sorry). Just a warning to you all, it takes forever for me to write anything because I have such huge standards. I'll try to do better till next time!**


End file.
